Just What The Dr. Ordered: 6-Hour Hand Sanitizer

With worries about the spread of swine flu, hand sanitizers are everywhere. But how helpful are they?

Researchers say a typical, consumer brand, hand sanitizer with 60-percent alcohol, kills germs on contact. But if you touch something after that, your hands are germy again.

Doctors and surgeons use hospital-grade hand sanitizers that last for hours.

Healthpoint, a Fort Worth pharmaceutical company, developed a hand sanitizer used in 17 North Texas hospitals and 500 hospitals across the nation.

Healthpoint is now marketing the product to the public under another label called "Ultracept." Researchers for the company say their product contains 70-percent alcohol. But a patented ingredient causes it to kill germs for six hours.

"After three uses, you have a little bit more persistence," explained Dr. Bert Slade, the chief medical officer at Healthpoint. "The chemistry accumulates by binding to your skin."

The FDA will not allow any company to claim its product kills the flu. But Healthpoint says a longer lasting hand sanitizer for consumers could be just what the doctor ordered.